I think I'm allergic to carbs because every time I eat them I break out in fat! ??

But seriously, can you help me figure something out?

I eat around 750 calories/day. I drink 80 oz of water a day. I get 75 g of protein in a day. I exercise 30 minutes a day.

But if I eat carbs, seriously like as few as six Wheat Thins crackers or something, the scale will go up the next day. Or if I eat a taco, the scale goes up, even though I'm still at 750 calories and mostly protein.

Is it water retention from the salt in the crackers? Is it the carbs themselves? Do I have to avoid carbs completely, which I sort of already feel like I do 95% of the time.

Thoughts? Similar situation with your body?

10 minutes ago, GradyCat said:

Is it water retention from the salt in the crackers? Is it the carbs themselves?

Yes. Carbohydrates bind water. Think glycogen for example.

6 minutes ago, summerset said:

Yes. Carbohydrates bind water. Think glycogen for example.

Oh, I see. I googled it.

Glycogen and Diet

What you eat and how much you move around also influences glycogen production. The effects are especially felt if you're following a low-carb diet, where the primary source of glucose synthesis—carbohydrate—is suddenly restricted.

When first starting a low-carb diet, your body's glycogen stores can be severely depleted and you may experience symptoms of fatigue and mental dullness. Once your body adjusts and starts renewing its glycogen stores, these symptoms should begin to subside.

Additionally, any amount of weight loss can have the same effect on glycogen stores. Initially, you may experience a rapid drop in weight. After a period of time, your weight may plateau and possibly even increase.

If you tend to freak out about sudden weight gains invest in a scale that measures body fat as well. These things might not be very accurate but when you gain weight and see a sudden drop in body fat at the same time - you're retaining water.

the above poster is right. Also, with tacos, you're probably dealing with sodium as well. That makes a lot of people retain water (including me!!)

Yes. What they said. ((hugs)). Welcome to the world of menopausal women (especially). I truly believe most of us are more prone to IR and to less metabolic flexibility. Also, the KIND of carbs count. If you took an equal number of carbs composed from leafy greens, maybe some broccoli and avocado? Chances are you wouldn't have had a weight spike. But the taco shell, crackers, chippy stuff are all highly available and calorie dense sources that enter the blood stream very quickly. It causes an insulin and bg spike and boomshackalaka - instant glycogen/water glomming occurs.

(I also think your protein is a little high for your activity level and size. I think it should be closer to around 60ish (if it were me--and it is... )

27 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

II also think your Protein is a little high for your activity level and size. I think it should be closer to around 60ish (if it were me--and it is... )

OMG! I had no idea! Here I was pushing protein, protein, protein! I just checked my MyFitnessPal log and sure enough I've been getting 90+ for the last week. So I googled what you said about too much protein and found:

Weight Gain

Your body can only use a certain amount of protein each day. If you take in too much protein, you may gain weight. Each gram of protein has 4 calories. If you take in 100 grams of protein, but your body can only use 50 grams of it, your body will store the extra 200 calories' worth of protein as fat. Doing this daily can cause you to take in 1,400 extra calories per week, resulting in a weight gain of almost 2 pounds per month.

How to calculate how much protein you need?

Here’s an easy way to calculate approximately how much protein you need:

• Take your weight in pounds.
• Divide that number by 2.2. This is your weight in kilograms.
• Take that number a nd multiply it by: 0.8 if you’re a regular healthy active person, 1.0 if you’re an intense athlete.

Edited June 7, 20197 yr by GradyCat

So protein need is calculated 1 of 2 ways and they are both very similar (within grams). Due weight is made up of "ideal weight" from the archaic insurance charts that calculates it as a formula (for women): 100lbs for the first 5 feet; 5lbs for every inch over 5 feet. So for you being 5'6" then your due weight = 130lbs.

It can also be figured on LBM (lean body mass=no fat, only lean mass which includes bones, vessels, arteries, etc). You can go calculate that. There are several sites that offer calculators. But your LBM is probably close to 105lbs-ish at ideal weight.

To calculate protein needs you can use 0.6-1.2g/kg of body weight. For you, it would likely be around 0.8g/kg.

So take your due weight 136lbs divided by 2.2lbs/kg to get your weight in kg = 59kg

Your protein need is: 59kg X 0.8g/kg = 47g per day minimum up to 70g per day on the upper limit.

People who need that upper limit are:

People who are old (over 75)
People who are sick
People who are malnourished
If your nutrition panel shows your albumin and pre-albumin are low
People who are recovering from injury or surgery

Any protein over your needs is stored as energy. About 50% of protein is converted to glucose. So it isn't just about carbs, but it's about the total picture. Are you overnourished?

Edited June 7, 20197 yr by FluffyChix

4 hours ago, GradyCat said:

I think I'm allergic to carbs because every time I eat them I break out in fat! ??

But seriously, can you help me figure something out?

I eat around 750 calories/day. I drink 80 oz of Water a day. I get 75 g of Protein in a day. I exercise 30 minutes a day.

But if I eat carbs, seriously like as few as six Wheat Thins crackers or something, the scale will go up the next day. Or if I eat a taco, the scale goes up, even though I'm still at 750 calories and mostly protein.

Is it water retention from the salt in the crackers? Is it the carbs themselves? Do I have to avoid carbs completely, which I sort of already feel like I do 95% of the time.

Thoughts? Similar situation with your body?

Is it only weight gain? or do you have any other side effects as well?

I think I used to be allergic to Junk Food, it made me break out in lumps of fat!???

3 hours ago, koketika said:

Is it only weight gain? or do you have any other side effects as well?

Just weight gain

8 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

So Protein need is calculated 1 of 2 ways and they are both very similar (within grams). Due weight is made up of "ideal weight" from the archaic insurance charts that calculates it as a formula (for women): 100lbs for the first 5 feet; 5lbs for every inch over 5 feet. So for you being 5'6" then your due weight = 130lbs.

It can also be figured on LBM (lean body mass=no fat, only lean mass which includes bones, vessels, arteries, etc). You can go calculate that. There are several sites that offer calculators. But your LBM is probably close to 105lbs-ish at ideal weight.

To calculate protein needs you can use 0.6-1.2g/kg of body weight. For you, it would likely be around 0.8g/kg.

So take your due weight 136lbs divided by 2.2lbs/kg to get your weight in kg = 59kg

Your protein need is: 59kg X 0.8g/kg = 47g per day minimum up to 70g per day on the upper limit.

People who need that upper limit are:

People who are old (over 75)
People who are sick
People who are malnourished
If your nutrition panel shows your albumin and pre-albumin are low
People who are recovering from injury or surgery

Any protein over your needs is stored as energy. About 50% of protein is converted to glucose. So it isn't just about carbs, but it's about the total picture. Are you overnourished?

I used the above calculation of weight ÷ 2.2 x .8 and it equaled 100 grams. Is that too much fluffy? I weight 277 right now.

5 hours ago, gabybab said:

I used the above calculation of weight ÷ 2.2 x .8 and it equaled 100 grams. Is that too much fluffy? I weight 277 right now.

Most likely, it is. The tricky thing with protein need is that it is based upon lean body mass rather than overall weigth; various calculators simplify this as most don't know what their LBM is, but do know their scale weight, so assumptions are made, and they typically work reasonably well for people of normal-ish size and body composition, but not very well for the seriously overweight. The "ideal" weight or your goal weight works better for these calculations. Most bariatric programs simply specify that women should get 60-80 g, and men 80-100 g, or something in that ballpark, which tend to be a bit on the high side from general population health recommendations, but a bit of overkill isn't a bad thing considering that we are healing for a while, and want to make sure that we preserve the LBM that we have to the extent possible.

I use a little more complex formula that I found that specifically uses LBM (if you know it) and seeks to provide the protein required to renew the body tissue every six months, and it overall comes up in the same ballpark as other recommendations, though provides some insight into some of the mechanism involved. For my 150+ lb of LBM, it works out to a protein need of 100-105 g for a basic maintenance level; a short-ish woman (5ft, give or take) with a normal weight of around 110 lb, her typical LBM would be around 80 lb, so a protein need of a bit more than half of mine - call it 55ish g. Were I to want to add some muscle mass, say about 10lb over the next six months - a reasonable goal without funny drugs and a reasonable amount of appropriate work - my need would increase an additional 40-45g; a reasonable dietary goal if one were so inclined, and far short of the extreme "recommendations" from the body building sources intent on selling protein supplements.

15 hours ago, GradyCat said:

I think I'm allergic to carbs because every time I eat them I break out in fat! ??

But seriously, can you help me figure something out?

I eat around 750 calories/day. I drink 80 oz of Water a day. I get 75 g of Protein in a day. I exercise 30 minutes a day.

But if I eat carbs, seriously like as few as six Wheat Thins crackers or something, the scale will go up the next day. Or if I eat a taco, the scale goes up, even though I'm still at 750 calories and mostly protein.

Is it water retention from the salt in the crackers? Is it the carbs themselves? Do I have to avoid carbs completely, which I sort of already feel like I do 95% of the time.

Thoughts? Similar situation with your body?

Yes, it is most likely just the glycogen thing - being on a low carb diet and having a low glycogen level will make one more "carb sensitive" than those on a more normal diet.

I maintained a relatively high carbohydrate diet (for bariatrics), typically in the 70-100 g range (no particular goal on that, other than trying to optimize nutrition of the non-protein segment of my diet) and never noted any particular weight changes associated with such dietary fluctuations. Indeed, after four months or so I specifically increased my complex carbohydrate intake selectively (addressing some workout energy issues) so that 120g was not unusual on those days, and likewise, no particular weight impact from that (other than continued on trend loss!) Presumably, my glycogen levels were already maintaining at a semi-normal level.

I doubt that half a dozen wheat thins would have enough sodium to make a big difference, though as we usually have fairly low levels with our low overall food intake. In our American/Western diet, the high sodium levels that are a characteristic typically come more from the packaged/processed foods in our diet (things like monoSODIUMglutamate, etc.) than table salt we may add to a meal or from classically "salty" foods. Most every time that I travel, I will gain 2,3,4 lb that week, even though calorically my diet hasn't changed much, but I am eating out more that week, and restaurant foods are usually pretty high in sodium, even the "healthy" dishes. That weight drops off after a few days.

14 hours ago, gabybab said:

I used the above calculation of weight ÷ 2.2 x .8 and it equaled 100 grams. Is that too much fluffy? I weight 277 right now.

Your calculation is incorrect hon.

You are 5'6". So your ideal weight is assessed at 130lbs (100 for the first 5 feet and 5lbs for every inch over 100lbs = 100 + (5lbs X 6ins) = 130lbs.

Now express your ideal weight in kg: 130lbs divided by 2.2kg/lb = 59kg

Now figure your protein needs bases upon your health/activity/degree of athletic pursuit (most of us are average): 59kg X 0.8g/kg of protein = 47.2g of protein per day

Now assume on average that there are about 7g of protein per OUNCE of dense protein by weight: 47.2g protein divided by 7g/ounce protein = 6.74oz protein (dense protein) by weight on a scale to satisfy that 47.2g of protein content per day.

And anything above that is likely over-nutrition for most of us. But if you aren't average...then the recs go all the way up to 1.4g/kg of ideal body weight per day.

17 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

Your calculation is incorrect hon.

You are 5'6". So your ideal weight is assessed at 130lbs (100 for the first 5 feet and 5lbs for every inch over 100lbs = 100 + (5lbs X 6ins) = 130lbs.

Now express your ideal weight in kg: 130lbs divided by 2.2kg/lb = 59kg

Now figure your Protein needs bases upon your health/activity/degree of athletic pursuit (most of us are average): 59kg X 0.8g/kg of protein = 47.2g of protein per day

Now assume on average that there are about 7g of protein per OUNCE of dense protein by weight: 47.2g protein divided by 7g/ounce protein = 6.74oz protein (dense protein) by weight on a scale to satisfy that 47.2g of protein content per day.

And anything above that is likely over-nutrition for most of us. But if you aren't average...then the recs go all the way up to 1.4g/kg of ideal body weight per day.

Thank you for always being so helpful! You are a gem!?